


To Bloom in Chaos

by alexcat



Series: Cap - Iron Man Bingo 2019 (2) [5]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Angst, Canonical Character Death, M/M, Minor Pepper Potts/Tony Stark
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-26
Updated: 2020-01-26
Packaged: 2021-02-27 08:46:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 494
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22424290
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alexcat/pseuds/alexcat
Summary: After the memorial service, Steve thinks about  heroism.
Relationships: Steve Rogers/Tony Stark
Series: Cap - Iron Man Bingo 2019 (2) [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1494959
Kudos: 10
Collections: Captain America/Iron Man Bingo, Of Elves and Men





	To Bloom in Chaos

**Author's Note:**

> For Cap-Ironman Bingo! 2019 Round 2
> 
> Prompt - Accidental hero 
> 
> The title comes from this quote:  
>  _“There are men who bloom in chaos. You call them heroes or villains, depending on which side wins the war, but until the battle call they are but normal men who long for action, who lust for the opportunity to throw off the routine of their normal lives like a cocoon and come into their own. They sense a destiny larger than themselves, but only when structures collapse around them do these men become warriors.”_ ~ Guillermo del Toro (The Fall)

_Another definition of a hero is someone who is concerned about other people's well-being, and will go out of his or her way to help them -- even if there is no chance of a reward. That person who helps others simply because it should or must be done, and because it is the right thing to do, is indeed without a doubt, a real superhero._ ~~ STAN LEE  
*

Steve thought often of his words on the helicarrier when he and Tony Stark had first met. 

_“You know you may not be a threat but you better stop pretending to be a hero."_

Everyone thought that Tony did it all because he wanted to be a hero and the fame that went with it, but Steve knew better. Tony wanted to make the world safe. He did it out of sense of both guilt over his part in making the world unsafe and his fear of the demons he helped unleash. He’d felt he owed the world a debt.

Steve knew how much it cost Tony to go out there and fight. He’d seen the bruises and cuts, seen how hard it was for Tony to even get out of the bed some days. Steve was enhanced, but Tony was just a man in a suit who wanted to make the world safe. He spent countless hours making his suit and everyone else’s better, not for fame but for a real desire to safeguard the world and his friends, who helped him keep it safe.

The hero part was accidental. 

Tony was what he was, always. Steve had learned that quickly. He might talk big and pretend that he was _just_ a spoiled rich boy – _“Genius, billionaire, playboy philanthropist”_ \- but he was more than that, so much more. He was determined to stand in the breech, even when it scared him so bad that he didn’t sleep or eat. 

Steve knew all these things because he was there for many of them. 

He looked out over the lake. He wondered if Tony slept after he married Pepper, after he stopped talking to any of them. He had wakened many nights when Tony was with him to find him staring out the window or tinkering on one of the suits, anything to stay busy, to keep moving.

_”You're not the guy to make the sacrifice play. To lay down on the wire and let the other guy crawl over you.”_

Perhaps he wasn’t just a hero by accident. Perhaps he’d been set on the course when he’d made the suit in Afghanistan. Maybe even before that. Even as Steve’s own heart had shattered as they watched Tony die, he’d never felt so much pride and thankfulness that he’d actually known this man, this hero. He was sure that Tony had known that he was the one who was going to make the ultimate sacrifice and did it anyway. 

For Morgan and Pepper. 

For him.

For them all.

**Author's Note:**

> My [**Tumblr**](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/alexcat45).


End file.
